32-year old Ron Mendoza has only been in pastry for six years.
He began his culinary career at the age of 25 after years of working
in retail. He enrolled at the California School of Culinary Arts,
then got his start with the Patina restaurant group led
by chef Joachim Splichal. The ideas for his “free-flowing”
pastry compositions come from having worked on the savory side of
the kitchen. Mendoza credits Albert Adrià, Oriol Balaguer
and Pierre Hermé as some of his pastry heroes, but it was
at Patina restaurant where he received rigorous pastry
training under pastry chef Michelle Myers. Mendoza continued to
work with Michelle and her husband David (a 2004 LA Rising Star)
at Sona. There he earned a reputation for deftly crossing
savory ingredients with sweet in a delicate balance of flavor. In
addition to creating desserts for the restaurant, he assisted in
pastry production for Michelle Myers’ patisserie/chocolaterie,
Boule, located across the street. Recently Mendoza said
farewell to the Sona pastry kitchen in order to move on
to the next phase of his promising career.

For Milk Confit:
In a saucepot, combine milk, sugar, and vanilla bean with scrapings.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer until reduced by half.
Cool and reserve.

For Olive Oil Sponge Cake:
Preheat oven to 380°F. Sift dry ingredients together. In a mixer,
whip eggs and sugar until thick and foamy, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Add milk, then gently fold in dry ingredients. Add olive oil and
zest. Pour into cake pan and bake for about 10 to 12 minutes or
until golden.

For Pistachio Ice Cream:
In a saucepan, bring milk, glucose and pistachio paste to a boil.
Add sugar to yolks and mix well. Temper a quarter of the warm milk
into the yolks off the heat. Make sure yolks do not curdle. Return
the pan to the heat and cook for 6 to 8 minutes over medium heat
to make a custard. Strain the custard, cool in an ice bath and add
the crème fraiche. Add the pistachios to the cutstard and
freeze it in PacoJet canisters. When completely frozen, process
in a PacoJet.

For Grapefruit Sorbet:
In a small saucepan, bring water and sugar to a boil until sugar
is completely dissolved, then let cool.

Add vanilla bean pulp to juice and let it infuse for 30 minutes.
Add sugar syrup to taste, it should just barely be sweet, about
20 percent syrup to juice. Process in a PacoJet.

For Blackberry Sauce:
Blend ¾ of the blackberries with glucose and citric acid,
strain and chill. Reduce in a saucepan until glaze coats the back
of a spoon. Save remaining berries for plating.

To Assemble and Serve:
Cut cake into 1½-inch squares and soak in milk confit for
30 minutes. Keep warm in oven. Add berries to the glaze, toss gently
to coat and spoon onto serving plates.

Place the segments on the plate and top with micro herbs. Add
the cake to the plate. Sprinkle some chopped pistachios on the plate
and place a scoop of pistachio ice cream and grapefruit sorbet on
top of the nuts.